@blackskepticsgroup

EVENTS

The HIV infection rate among black men who have sex with men (MSM) in the U.S. now rivals what is seen in the worst impacted parts of the world, including Southern Africa, according to recent studies. The numbers were more alarming than expected for health care providers, researchers and policy professionals already focused on this issue.

A study by the HIV Prevention Trial Network (HPTN) found that black MSM in the U.S. who are under 30 have a 5.9% infection rate, which is 3 times the rate among their white peers and is comparable to rates in the general population in sub-saharan Africa’s hardest hit regions.

The findings of the Black AIDS Institute’s recently released report on AIDS among black gay men in the U.S. paint a bleak picture as well. An estimated 25% of black MSM in the U.S. at age 25 are HIV positive, at age 40, the number goes up to 60%. Sixty.

Yet studies do not point to a higher degree of risky sexual behavior as the explanation for the higher rates among black MSM as compared to their white counterparts; in fact some studies show black MSM are less likely to engage in risky sexual behavior than their white and Latino counterparts. The discrepancy results in part from diminished access to and utilization of health care services, including testing allowing for early diagnosis and for antiretroviral treatment that lower viral loads and reduce the chance of passing the virus. Lower rates of testing also result in higher rates of other untreated STDs which increase the chance of transmission.

The study also found that black MSM in the Bible Belt south have seen the greatest increase in infection rate, and are also least likely to have access to HIV related resources, due in part to political leadership which hardly prioritizes such concerns; many of the governors of these states have vowed not to implement portions of “Obamacare” that have the potential to level the playing field in terms of access to health resources.

But black mainstream and white LGBT mainstream organizations and political leadership have also largely ignored the epidemic among black MSM. The report identifies the black church as “both a challenge and an opportunity” to build leadership on this issue, noting that the church plays a role in the marginalization of MSM and in reinforcing internalized homophobia.

The report also calls for initiatives to increase the level of testing among black MSM, increasing access to and use of for treatment of HIV as well as prophylaxis that can prevent infection if taken soon after an exposure to the virus, and for an end to the disparity in treatment and prevention programs aimed at black MSM.

The senseless tragedy in which 12 moviegoers were murdered and scores other injured at a screening of the new Batman film may have been enough to “halt” the presidential campaigns, but the predictable conversations about gun rights, gun control, and of course “God” march on. Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert blames the shooting on the fact that:

We have been at war with the very pillars, the very foundation of this country … and when … you know … what really gets me as a Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs and then a senseless, crazy act of terror like this takes place.

You know, when people say, where was God in all of this? Well, you know, we don’t let … in fact we’ve threatened high school graduation participants that if they use God’s name that they’re going to be jailed….etc etc

This asshole apparently worships an asshole God who allows babies to get shot because He is so butthurt that His name isn’t said at high school graduations. Gohmert also repeats the standard canard that “if only the theatre patrons had guns”…because of course everyone with a gun is a good enough shot to take out an armed assailant in a dark theatre while chaos is breaking out, without hitting an innocent bystander.

On another note, Aurora has become a suburban destination for black Denver area residents and has one of the highest concentrations of African-Americans in the state of Colorado. An Aurora resident who met the alleged shooter James Holmes in a bar two weeks ago claims Holmes made “slightly racist statements” about rap music fans. Reports are that Holmes is not cooperating, however, so no motive has been determined.

The American death industry pimps heaven hard, squeals like a stuck pig about redemption, then tasks the faithful with collecting the bloody dividends. For the believer the death of an atheist or agnostic loved one is a theological crap shoot. It invariably inspires fantasy, creative license, and outright bullshit betrayal of the dearly departed’s principles. Such was the case with my friend “Miguel”, who tragically collapsed during a basketball game at his school, went into a coma, and never regained consciousness. One afternoon when I went to visit him in the hospital I stumbled right into the middle of a raging prayer circle. Heads bowed, hands joined, voices hushed, three friends and family were deep in the throes of spiritual reconnaissance over Miguel’s bed.

Thanks, but no thanks, he would have said. At a vibrant 54, Miguel was a hardcore skeptic, an agnostic-atheist who never took anything on faith and made it his business to slash sacred cows of all stripes with a wink and swagger. As an esteemed educator for nearly 25 years he ruled his classrooms like a prize fighter, inspiring all who entered to think critically about the sociopolitical conditions of communities of color, institutional racism, classism, and sexism. His lessons drew on everyone from Bob Dylan to Toni Morrison to Tupac to Shakespeare to Sandra Cisneros; using their explorations of social justice, morality, and life’s paradoxes to turn on Black and Latino students who’d had it drilled into them that they weren’t cut out to be intellectuals or scholars.

But none of this passion for freethought was captured in the marathon orgy of Catholicism that was his memorial. During the ceremony, Miguel’s ashes were paraded down the church aisle in a little urn while the pastor declared to the faithful that “our brother has been called home.” It was a spectacle that he would have certainly parodied—he, the Chicano blasphemer who once wrote (in response to one of my pieces on death and religion) that “this rips the covers off the hypocrisy and the monarchical role that religion plays in our society. It (religion) swears out its conformity and power to the downtrodden it shackles every day. Let’s examine the nexus between corporate obscenity and the hand holding of their gospel spewing brethren in the tax free halls of America. Neither pay taxes, both exploit and we the benighted beg at their altars for alms, or forgiveness, or both.”

When my twin infant son Jay died ten days after his birth I was spared the prayer circles but got sprayed by the angel talk and the Jesus juice. Jay was going to be a Black angel with white wings hurtling up to take his place with the Lord. He was going to be one of the elite gold card cherubs that “God” had watched suffer and die. In a candid moment he would get to ask God, “Why did you fuck me?” And be told “Membership has its privileges.”

In death faith is the easiest breeziest coziest bromide fondue. Snatch it away and there is savagery. The savagery of outliving one’s young child. The savagery of a “Christian” nation that lets communities like mine bury its children week in and week out while spending billions on immoral imperialist wars. The savagery of the good dying young and the evil wanking into dotage. The savagery of organized religion that only makes the death of a child assimilable through fraud deities that, as Epicurus sagely protested, have neither the power nor the will to give or spare life in the first place. In her Free Inquiry article “Grief Beyond Belief” non-believer Rebecca Hensler talks about the difficulty of dealing with God talk after the death of her son. Seeking solace in other bereaved parents she says, “I found myself alienated by (their) constant talk of being reunited with their children someday. I had no patience with credulous stories of signs from beloved sons and daughters.” The experience motivated her to start a Grief Beyond Belief Facebook page for those who need secular spaces to mourn. Secular grieving and its rituals are still a nascent enterprise. In communities of color where hyper-religiosity and “spiritualism” become the default categories to memorialize death, secular spaces are virtually non-existent.

Non-believers refuse to waste time and energy on an afterlife but the abyss is still emotionally perilous. All of the rituals of religious redemption, as Miguel might say, have been ripped to shreds, delivered up to the cold light of day as a Disneyland front for the bloody, ugly, untamable, Sisyphean TKO of the right here right now—the dead “immortal” in the memories, deeds, and lived experiences of the living, the living slouching each second toward the dead.

White people have started to return to South Los Angeles. They can be seen watering lawns, walking dogs, and frequenting local restaurants. Legend has it that there are a few white families that never left during the postwar mass exodus that magically transformed what was once Southwest L.A. into “South Central”—that internationally notorious, mythic den of drugs, drive-bys and destruction that launched a thousand gangsta rap careers and corporate parasites rolling to the bank on the backs of “bitches” and “hos.”

Back in the day all of the “bad” black and brown schools in Compton, Watts, and Inglewood were teeming with whites. Americana Leave it to Beaver mom icon Barbara Billingsley even graduated from a local ‘hood school in the 1930s. But these new white transplants are merely symbols of the turbulent real estate market, not inner city missionaries slumming for an ethnographic high. They’re canaries in the coalmine of negative equity. Priced out of the “better” (read white) areas of the city some white homebuyers have been forced to venture back into the hood. Snapping up Spanish or Craftsman-style bungalows in savvy short sales they’re rediscovering the “quaintness” of Black neighborhoods that their forebears escaped decades ago courtesy of government programs like the GI Bill and FHA mortgage lending. Touring the streets wide-eyed with their travelogues some register surprise at the area’s suburban aura, the “tidiness” of the homes, the “unexpected” pride in ownership that the natives demonstrate. But having the luxury to move back to the “ghetto” they built through generations of apartheid housing policies is part of whites’ democratic birthright.

White American democracy has always meant the bliss of segregation and the willful ignorance of the bodies that get displaced. It’s ladled out in cultural initiations like being warned to keep the car windows up when driving through Black areas or having a nifty cell phone app nicknamed “Avoid Ghetto.” Even in the era of rampant “Main Street” foreclosure and negative equity white American democracy still means the privilege of mobility. When whites move into neighborhoods that residents of color have been forced to leave due to plummeting home values and high unemployment it’s called gentrification. It is only cause for national political action and reform when white middle class homeowners are impacted by imploding housing bubbles. Bipartisan political rhetoric that fixates on the “middle class” (as the default category), while marginalizing disproportionately asset poor working class people of color, merely reinforces a colorblind class myth where struggling white people have it “just as bad” as people of color.

This is true, because, for the party of the Religious Right, poor people don’t work and they don’t pay taxes. God’s pecking order does not favor being on the dole and accepting handouts. American exceptionalism is validated by the specter of the Black ghetto as den of immorality. [Read more…]

Black Skeptics announces the creation of a scholarship fund for the 2012-2013 school year. $200-$500 scholarships will be awarded in June 2013 to up to ten South Los Angeles high school students of color in the Los Angeles Unified School District who will be the first in their immediate family to go to college. BS will seek matching funds from community based and partner organizations in the humanist, social justice and LGBTQ community.

Eligibility Requirements:

Preference will be given to students who are in foster care, homeless, undocumented or LGBTQ.

Students must have a strong record of service to and participation in school and/or community-based organizations.

Students must have admission letter to a 2 or 4 year college

Students must be recommended by an advisor/teacher and write two-paragraph reflection on some aspect of social justice and leadership from a humanist perspective

18 year old Zach Kopplin is still fighting the good fight against state supported religious indoctrination in Louisiana public schools. Check out his blog post which calls for a halt to the state’s voucher program which “provides millions of taxpayer dollars to private schools that teach creationism and whose curriculum doesn’t meet the state’s approved science standards.” Zach also notes that Jindal is Romney’s “education surrogate” and possible pick for Secretary of Education should Romney win in November. Oy….

Massa “I’ll piss on you Negroes from a great height and call it rain” Mitt shoulda been run out on a rail instead of booed at the recent NAACP convention. After slobbering over the stereotypically devout Black audience with all God’s chilluns got wings bromides he went on to tell them he would repeal the Affordable Care Act because, don’t you know, none of us should rely on big govt unless we’re helming a hedge fund and wanking Big Brother. Yes, he shoulda been run out on a rail and forced to do Mormon last rites at his multi-million dollar New Hampshire compound for the scores of black HIV/AIDS patients dropping dead every day. Or provide long term coverage to the homeless student of mine (unable to find a job due to her felony conviction) who racked up thousands in emergency room costs for an ulcer. Or play Florence Nightingale to the cousin who landed at the County hospital after suffering a gunshot wound; homicide and AIDS being leading causes of death for young black men. But Massa Mitt was in good company today as the House voted to repeal ACA and release the pressure valve on two years of pent up white nationalist sound and fury over government handouts to poor folk only a fraction of whom will be covered by the ACA due to Red State refusals to expand Medicaid.

Of course, by buckling on single payer the Obama administration has been no friend to African Americans who have the highest unemployment rates (over 14% nationally), lowest life expectancy, and greatest residential segregation of any group in the country. Back in 2009 when Obama was still fine-tuning his tough love message scolding Black America about sagging pants and deadbeat dads, African Americans were told that a rising tide lifts all boats. There was no need for targeted government programs for jobless homeless African Americans because mainstream social welfare policies would benefit them equally. Obama’s stance has always been disingenous given that the wealth gap between blacks and whites is staggering and even affluent blacks generally live in poorer neighborhoods than do lower-income whites. As Margaret Kimberly of Black Agenda Report contends “Of course this black man is president in large part because he doesn’t identify with the political aspirations of black people. He famously said there is no black America or white America, and the degree to which he was embraced by millions of black people only adds to the denial of the severity of our situation.” Romney’s NAACP sideshow only obscures how miserably the Obama administration has failed African American communities in a GOP wet dream of post-racialism.

Matthew Vines is a gay Harvard student reared in a “loving Christian home” and church community in Kansas. After finally reconciling himself to his sexual orientation, Vines took a two-year leave of absence to research what the Bible has to say about homosexuality. In March of this year, Vines gave a speech at a Kansas United Methodist Church, giving an overview of the verses that have been traditionally viewed as condemning of homosexuality. Gay columnist Dan Savage has referred to the video of the speech as “brilliant”.

Vines is clearly a bright, thoughtful young man who values his faith and who cares deeply about the experiences of LGBT Christians in their church communities. The most compelling portion of the video comes at the end when Vines speaks directly to straight Christians about their interactions with their gay brothers and sisters. However, I did not find Vines arguments particularly unique or consistently persuasive. At one time I was a gay Christian trying to reconcile my sexual orientation with a belief that the Bible was a “good” book that expresses God’s love, and most of the alternative explanations here I’d heard (and said) before. And like the arguments often heard from African-American Christians about how the slavery seemingly endorsed in the bible wasn’t REALLY slavery, what I see here is a person making indefensible apologetics for oppressive dictates in order to hold on to a belief system that provides emotional sustenance in other ways.

Vines best arguments concern the prohibition against homosexuality associated with the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. He convincingly demonstrates that taking this story as a general condemnation against homosexuality is unsubstantiated…both by looking at the context of the story itself and from other scriptural references that refer to Sodom’s chief sin as one of “discourtesy” to visitors (who also happen to be emissaries of the almighty). He as well makes easy work of the clumsy and presumptive translations of arsenokoites (abusers of themselves with mankind) and malokos (effeminate) which appear in 1 Corinthians. Vines rightfully dismisses later translations using “homosexual” as completely unsubstantiated, particularly given the ambiguity around the meaning of the greek words.

But he loses me in his disposition of the Leviticus injunction against “lying with mankind as with womankind’. Vines makes the standard Christian argument when dismissing the most odious of the Old Testaments moral precepts: this does not apply to the new covenant and is therefore inapplicable to Christians. This argument not only ignores the inconsistent statements regarding the continued applicability of OT laws, but also has the unintended consequence of maintaining the death penalty for gay Jews. And, Vines of course never addresses the morality of a god who would make gay sex a death penalty offense under ANY ‘covenants’ or circumstances.

The handling of the odd-even-by-biblical standards section of Romans also falls flat. Vines points out that the verses are rendered in a way to describe idolatrous believers being given over to desires, including same-sex behavior. He then inconsistently argues that this verse describes behavior that was against a “naturally heterosexual’ person’s normal orientation while at the same time asserting (correctly) that the ancients had no concept of sexual orientation. He also puts forth a rather binary viewpoint of sexuality as either heterosexual or homosexual. Does he agree that a primarily heterosexual person who has homosexual activity deserves to be condemned or criticized for that as a matter of course? Again the defensibility of condemning the sexual behavior even under those circumstances isn’t questioned.

More generally, throughout the talk Vines makes the common and cloying distinction between “loving, committed same sex relationships” and the type of licentious sexual relationships which he believes the relevant verses condemn. This implies that the writers would have made a similar distinction, which is an unsubstantiated assumption.

And as a secularist, my overall critique is against the impulse to reconcile homosexuality to a barbaric book of mythology. Of course my viewpoint is “who gives a damn what the bible says one way or another?” I also think the approach of changing minds about the morality of homosexuality by offering alternative biblical explanations gets the process backwards. As much as some claim that their morality comes from the bible, what seems to be the case to me is that changes in moral viewpoints of believers result more from cultural, political, and temporal factors and the degree to which relationships and identities are modeled in works of popular culture. The position is then “retrofitted” in a new look or take on scripture, so that the illusion that moral judgments come from the bible can be maintained.

But as a secularist interested in social justice issues, including the experiences of LGBT Christians, I have sympathy towards those working no matter how incrementally to push for progressive change within religious communities. At the same time I still see pointing out the fallacy of using this ancient text as a moral guideline as the more sensible and defensible approach.

HAHAAAAA OMG that freedman picture, YEP, looks like not a FUCKING THING HAS CHANGED in 200 years.

The only difference is NOW black males rape 85 year old white women and beat them to death; NOW the climb in windows, rape TV news anchors while biting chunks out of their tits & crushing their faces in with a hammer so that their teeth are found in their stomachs & their own mother doesn’t recognize her when found; NOW mobs of black teens violently attack whites who are just walking down the street, half the time they’re not even robbed – simply beaten to a pulp, into a coma/brain damage/death THEN lie and said ‘dey was racist’ as if that excuses 10 people kicking a man in the head after he’s already unconscious; NOW white people move to suburbs & pay 300K for a house because they want to keep their little boy safe ONLY to find out the kids of blacks living in NICE places are just as FUCK IGNORANT and VIOLENT as any poor ghetto trash when their little boy is beaten to death while riding his bike – witnesses said he was so scared that his feet kept pedaling his bike even when he was unconscious, on his side on the ground. Every time I think about that I fucking tear up – when I see his policeman dad in a video interview where the reporter asked him a question and his face just collapses & he gets up and leaves – he can’t even fucking talk.

AND PLEASE NO SHIT about the EVIL whites because 94% of ALL BLACKS MURDERED are killed BY OTHER BLACK PEOPLE

NINETY FOUR FUCKING PERCENT, got that? You are killing YOUR OWN people mother fucker. The biggest racists out there are BLACKS and unfortunately blacks are incredibly violent INCREDIBLY AND OBVIOUSLY VIOLENT.

I don’t know why you sons of bitches CONSTANTLY lie and distract from that “every race has bad people” YEAH that’s true, yours just has A WHOLE FUCKING LOT MORE. “statistics don’t mean a fucking thing” UNLESS they’re the ones that show how poor & needy you are, right? the ones that show how OPPRESSED or jobless you are, or how whites don’t want to hire you (why should they? How many fired blacks end up robbing a place & murdering their bosses or co-workers TONS all the fucking time, old people murdered during a break in by some ‘dude who used to do their yard work” FUCK THAT SHIT, I never hired a fucking black to mow my lawn FOR SHIT, WHY? So they can come back later & rob/rape me?) Why is it that blacks always seem more comfortable ROBBING a place if there is some known connection to the person? Like their cousin is a friend of their son or some bullshit?

OH one of my favorite stories. A black guy who had been a whites boys best friend all through high school & now they were both in their early 20′s. EVEN when blackie was arrested for rape, the white guy & his parents were at the trial EVERY DAY to support him (his own family MIA) well, then that BLACK needed some money-SO HE ROBBED THOSE PEOPLE – and 2 people were at home – his best friend and his 3 year old little sister. HE SHOT and killed BOTH OF THEM. The family just can’t wrap their minds around it. WHY? WHY? He was our friend, our little girl loved him. We would have GIVEN him the money if he had asked.

BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT BLACK MEN DO!! Fucking back stab murderous sons of WHORES. ISN’T IT OBVIOUS?

Talking about TRAYVON the CHILD the 17 year old 6’2″ child covered with shitty tattos (looked like jailhouse tattoos to me) and flashing gang signs online, talking about ‘fucking bitches and hoes on TWITTER talking about ‘wish I could kill every one” punching out a bus driver a WEEK BEFORE and the 17 year old black males in my home town got 4 fucking kids & been arrested 5 times, 7 times, out shooting people, and I’m supposed to say AAWWWW thats just a little child. FUCK you, no CHILD is a dope smoking, tattoo covered, thug scumbag.

My stepfather & 82 year old aunt were murdered by a 13 year old black CHILD who looked all of 11. Couldn’t have even been 5 feet fucking tall – but he was already a murdering ‘set people on fire’ son of bitch. TOO young for any kind of jail sentence, had the balls to shot two people and set them on FIRE, a little old lady.

I hate you, I despise blacks with my entire soul. You have DONE NOTHING for this world, and picking cotton or harvesting TOBACCO doesn’t count. And don’t lie about blacks BUILDING AMERICA because all they did was some farm work for some jews and some rich plantation owners, less than 3% of the entire country had slaves, and the majority of them were a handful of RICH farmers. The rest of the people, the PIONEERS who went out into the wilderness & had their families murdered by indians, who built their homes with their own hands & started with NOTHING, who created and farmed THATS WHO BUILT AMERICA, not the rich cunts, not the slaves. THE REAL HARD WORKING – WHITE people. For fucks sake, wheres all the farm work in AFRICA? Fuckers can’t even plant a fucking FIELD and the few who do grow, what comes up is SHIT. WHAT in AFRICA was BUILT BY BLACKS? I swear to god, the South African whites should have destroyed every fucking thing they created before they had it stolen by blacks who ancestors didn’t even LIVE ON THAT LAND. THAT LAND WAS LEGALLY AND MORALLY THE WHITE MANS, they fought wars – they paid money & goods, they had treaties and they BOUGHT that fucking land from the ZULU NATION.

THEN THE BLACKS – AS USUAL – hey lookit that, how come you got shit and I dont, I deserve that shit I didn’t build and would never have been able to build, and I’m a corrupt lazy mother fucker GIMME THAT.

SO the government GIVES THEM MONEY to start a DAIRY FARM so they can begin to ‘feed their people’ give them hundreds cows everything. FINALLY somebody goes out for some oversight, and what do they find? basically NOTHING because the cows have been stolen & sold, they are not cared for, the ones there are SICK as shit and abused. CORRUPT. KICK A WHITE MAN OFF HIS ORANGE & GRAPE farm, that his fathers father OWNED, his family is buried there. GIVE IT TO THE ZULUS, and 3 years later, scavenger blacks are breaking limbs off the orange trees for FIREWOOD, and the grapes have withered, the equipment is GONE, and nothing is left – nothing is growing – it’s all dead. FUCKING GREEDY INCOMPETENT SHITBAGS.

COMPLAINING ABOUT SLAVERY? OKAY then I guess you WISH your ancestors had just stayed in Africa? Because the blacks I know who visit africa come back to the U.S. and kiss the fucking GROUND, they are HAPPY to be there. BESIDES the only reason your male ancestors were sold by black africans to begin with is because they would have killed them anyway. Captured ‘warriors’ in battles were unwanted & not needed, they were killed. THe ‘sellers’ considered it a MERCY to sell them into slavery as then they would at least have a chance to live. You don’t know a FUCKING THING. believe me, HOW I wish there had been no black slaves, then I wouldn’t have to look at your ugly face, or smell that STENCH in the summer of a smell I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO RECOGNIZE AS THE SMELL OF BLACKS. WHY DO I HAVE TO SUFFER THAT? Why do I have to KNOW what BLACK B.O. smells like. MY great grandfather came to America as a farmer, and great grandfather is NOT THAT LONG AGO, slavery was already abolished, and that man worked his fingers to the bone, as my grandfather & father. Nobody helped them and they never did anything harmful to ANYBODY; but STILL I have to live surrounded by the FUCK WHITEY attitude I grew up with.

OH and by the way – my mother was a total STUPID fucking brainwashed lefty liberal hippie who was all ‘poor black people (weep weep), their schools are so horrible and busing blacks to white neighborhoods is a GOOD thing – we need blah blah blah’ so here I am A KID starting to cry about the plight of blacks, get bused to the WORST fucking school in town, boy did I change my tune after I went from a quiet well organized school environment to fucking nigger dicks in the 4th grade, screaming jumping ppst ppppsssssst pssssst and when I look they’re scratching their dicks, balls, laughing filthy disgusting, threatening to ‘CUT ME’ on the playground. HEY if you want to raise your litters like that, go ahead, keep them away from me and my fucking family.

BLACKS are the ones who taught me racism, not my IDIOT hippie family or any white people I knew, who all bought into the LIE that blacks are JUST LIKE US, except for the LOW IQs the rape, the killing, the domestic abuse, ETC.

Oh and please don’t bring up any examples of HALF WHITES of how intelligent blacks are. There are black people in the U.S. with 75% white DNA and don’t even know it. Watch Oprahs stupid DNA documentary where that ‘black professor of AFREAKAN studies” finds out he’s 75% white. LMAO !! I LAUGHED my ass off at the look on his face, man was he depressed. It was so obvious. Now he can’t talk about how smart blacks are because LOOK AT ME, 75% white guy. That was awesome.